How to use basic formulae in MS-Excel?

To get your work done easily and effectively in excel, it is must to know the concept of formula. In this post, we are helping you to know how to use basic formulae in excel. You can link your formula by linking cells of the same worksheet or different worksheet or even different workbooks. In this section, we are using simple addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division as these are basic formulae. We will be providing you knowledge of complex formulae in our next posts.

Excel illustration 1

In Reference to above illustration 1, we are going to answer some basic excel questions. For your ease of understanding, we have colored three cells in above excel worksheet.

Lets Define Few Terms Used here.

In above image, A, B, C denote column and 1, 2, 3 denotes The cell is the intersection of row and column.

How is the cell name determined?

The green cell is B3 as Column B and Row 3 intersect on that cell. Similarly, the blue cell is C3. This is how the name of the cell is determined.

How do we start the formula?

We have used addition formula in cell E3. The formula always starts with “=” sign. For easy use of numeric keypad in your laptop, you can use “+” sign too.

How do you link the other cells in your formula?

Suppose you want to add the content of Green and blue cells in the yellow Then there are two ways of doing so. Either you can manually type “=B3+C3” in yellow cell or you can type ‘=” and then simply click on B3 (Green cell) then type “+” and then click on C3(Blue cell)

Can I use the cells of other worksheets or other workbooks?

Yes, you can. You can simply click on any cell of any worksheet or workbook which you want to use the formula. Manually typing all the cells will be tough. We recommend to simply click on whichever cell you want to include in the formula.

What is the result of above formula?

Excel illustration 2

Now in illustration 2 let us experiment some of the basic excel formulae. For the basic level, let’s use “SUM”.

SUM formula is used in excel to add two or more cells. To use this formula, you must type “=SUM(B3, C3, D3, E3)” where B3, C3, D3, E3 are different cells containing values. Further, instead of including name of each cell in the formula, you can simply select the above mentioned four cells which will show in the formula as “=SUM(B3:E3)”.

“B3: E3” in the later formula means, it includes all the cells within the range of B3 and E3 in the worksheet. The image below summarizes the SUM function.

Excel illustration 3

Similarly, In the same manner, you can also use the following formulas:

AVERAGE (gives average of selected cells),

MAX (gives max value in selected cells),

MIN (gives the smallest value in selected cells),

MEDIAN (gives the median value of selected cells) and so on.

Further, we can also combine two or more formulae in the same cell. For example, if we want to add the average of B3:E3 and average of B6:E6, we can combine both the formulae in one single cell. Following image will make it clear:

Excel illustration 4

This was the basic idea of using the formula in excel. In future posts, we will be given knowledge about complex formulae, complex combination of formulae and their use.

If You have any Question feel free to ask your question in the Comment down below.

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